Legacy Part 1
by mckellepstephen
Summary: Fiala has lived in Gath her entire life in the Guild of Blue Lotus, often watched and babied by her uncle Adrik and Aunt Sariel. She has never known the parents who abandoned her. Once day, she receives a letter from someone claiming to be her mother and she decides to set out to meet this woman. She meets many hardships on the way. (my own personal setting! Thanks Gyra!


Prologue:

It started as any normal day in the village of Gath. The milkman delivered bottles of fresh milk from the farm out of the village to all the paying customers. The old Halfling lady who ran the bakery feed day old crumbs to the various birds who came to her doorstep as the air was made pungent with the smell of fresh bread. The local guild, whom the village owed their safety and much of their prosperity to, was still slumbering in their beds. Yes it was a normal day in the quiet little village.

But today was not to remain a normal day for long. A woman in a tattered and mud splattered cloak entered the town right as the milkman finished his rounds. The old human male noted the woman enter but he did not pay her any heed. The woman sighed in relief as she noticed he took no interest in her. This was already going to be hard enough as it was, even without someone asking her annoying questions.

Adrik was late out of bed this morn. He was usually up with the sun getting the Inn and Tavern that was his pride and joy, the Gold Mine, up and running. His Elf wife rolled over to fill the space her husband vacated. He smiled at the sublime creature whom he loved as his life mate and planted a gentle kiss on her brow before dressing and heading down to ready the days menu. He sat down at the bar with a scarp of parchment and a stick of charcoal and began to plan the day's menu. Ever since he was a little Dwarf, hewing coal in the mines, Adrik wanted to be a Brewer and Tavern owner. Now here he was, his ambition met and a pretty wife to boot.

"Life has been really kind to me" He chuckles aloud, thanking each of the Dwarian gods, and the Elven ones his Sariel had taught him about, for the life he lead now. Once the menu was done, he headed down to the cellar and checked on the brews for the day. He selected three large casks of ale and hauled them upstairs with the remainder of last night's Ale. He noted there was not much though, the local Dwarf miners had been in last night.

After that was done, Adrik still had a couple of hours before he needed to start luncheon for the Tavern, the inn had no guests or he would have been up earlier with breakfast. Instead, he checked on the projects of his. These were five caskets with different wines and whiskeys that he himself had created the recipes for. He smelled the wood and tapped the sides, listening to the sound they made. He feels a pair of arms wrap around his waist part way and an intoxicating voice behind him asked

"Well, how are they doing?"

"About as well as you can expect, my forest nymph. They need another year or two I suspect." even Adrik finds his voice off uttering sweet phrases to his lover, he had often been told his voice made him sound permanently grumpy.

"The same for my own wine, my mountain" Lips press onto his neck and he sighs happily

"How did I get lucky enough to get a Elf like you?'

"Well, if I recall that was when you..." Sariel was interrupted by a knock on the door from above. She frowns in confusion "No one knocks on our door, they just come in..."

Adrik nods in agreement, this was very puzzling. He walks upstairs and his hand grasps a small hand-axe sitting on a shelf near the bar. He slips the weapon into the back of his belt as he cautiously approaches the door.

"Come in" He says in his gruff voice. There was no response. He nods and unlatches the door and opens it slowly inward. There was no man or woman standing in sight of the cracked door. Adrik pulls the door all the way open and still sees not a soul in the cobbled street other than the feasting birds. Then he happen to look down. There on the doorstep was a crate filled with blankets. Adrik had a sense of forbidding as he flicked the blanket aside and was met with a pair of brilliant blue eyes. And that is how Fiala came to the village of Gath.

Sariel is pacing back and forth in front of the bar, rocking the little lavender haired girl in her arms. "So..." She begins but stops, not wanting to say what they both were thinking. Adrik senses her discomfort and steps into the role of bad guy for her sake

"We cannot take her in. We are too busy running this place to raise a child as well. I know it sounds cruel but I'm sure someone in our fine village will take her in"

"But we do not have a temple or orphanage here and the next village with a temple is a weeks journey. I will not subject a child to that long of a trip"

"You're right, my heart. That is too much of a journey. Perhaps I should try the guild?"

Sariel paused her pacing, rocking the babe on the spot as she thought "Yes, Master Dark does take in small children to train. She will have no shortage of family in the Blue Lotus Guild... I don't know though." She smiles at the babe "She is a pretty little half-elf child, and thusly one of my people. I feel it would be wrong to abandon her completely."

The dwarf brewer hugs his wife close "We don't have to, I'm sure Master Dark will allow us to visit the child from time to time. We could be her Uncle Adrik and Auntie Sariel"

Sariel nods into his embrace and replies "Alright. Let us go see him at once."

The dwarf nods and goes about getting ready to take the child to the Master of the Blue Lotus Guild. Sariel notes he fishes some old toys from his own childhood out of storage and places them in the baby's box. She was not sure a little girl child would enjoy a toy hammer and wooden forge set but she was so pleased to see he obviously was smitten with the little bundle of joy as well. When he was ready, he takes her hand and the box. She grasps it tightly and holds the baby in her other arm. Together they went to meet Master Dark and decide this foundling's future.


End file.
